Convergences from the world of tarot

Author: Miguel Marques

For the Marseille reader, backgrounds are a bore. Everything’s white / whitish. In some cards, like the Moon or the Tower, have a nice background, with buildings, hills, lakes and whatever else graces the cards. Others, have some elements, usually hills, plants, water, things like that. But in all of them, when you look at the beyond the central figure, you face the white. In some, like La Force or L’ermit, white is all there is, and you either focus on the figure in front of you, or you’re faced with the emptiness around it.

Now I like the white space in the Marseille cards. In an age where every image is saturated with color and detail, it’s wonderful to rest your eyes in something that matters instead of having to fight your way through a ton of meaningless embellishments. After all, less is more and even though your sight is as keen as a lion’s, all that cutting down will soon dull your sight’s sharpness.

When dealing with the whole 78 cards of the Marseille deck, this white space is important, specially when reading the pips: do the objects have enough room to breath or are they crammed together? Can you devise a path between the coins / cups / spades or clubs or are they placed in a random order? All cues matter here and as with any other language, silence (or emptyness) is there to let you know when one thing ends and another starts.

If you’re just using the majors, chances are that all this emptiness won’t bother you. If you’re like me, you will take a cue from the remaining cards and assume that, unless otherwise noted, all the scenes before you are played outside. But like anything else in the cards, assumptions can be misleading and you should be careful, else you find yourself in the woods, with no light to guide you back.

It all starts with a question

Yesterday, I had a message in my facebook wall. A woman had met what she thought was a promising man and wanted to know how she should handle this. She was concerned because she had made some choices there weren’t that good and she didn’t want to tread that path again.

She was even more concerned, because as a seasoned tarot reader, she’s not used to not be able to read for herself, lucky her. After all, staring at yourself takes a lot, as you need to be detached from everything that connects you to the subject of your reading in order to fully understand what the cards are trying to say to you.

Time to bring out the swords

You can take this from a fully-pledged Thothite: ‘nothing beats the Marseille when what you want is instant clarity.’ There! I’ve said it. It’s really all in the whiteness: the lesser elements you have before you to consider, the better. Your eyes can cut to the chase and reveal the bones beneath in a snap.

My client gave me two concerns, so two spreads were in order: one about her future with this new acquaintance and a second one relating to her lack of vision. This meant that two spreads were in order.

What lies ahead for this woman and her new acquaintance?

The central line was clear enough: the meeting was pleasant and the two were in sync. There’s a good possibility that things might develop into something more, specially with this guy being represented by the gallant King of Cups. And yet… That Empress doesn’t seem too impressed! She’s looking away from the King of Cups and, even worse, her shield is facing our new guy. She’s leaning forward, trying to reach something, so an additional sight card was drawn: the Hermit.

My first reading of this additional card was a classic one: there’s something else at play here. Is she actually ready to let go of the loneliness or is she waiting for someone that has become absent? Questions, questions!!! And this card becomes even more important once you realize that the whole spread is directing your gaze to the Hermit. Surely this is the gist of the matter! But more on this latter.

Given the situation, what she should do was simple: she should open up to the new guy just enough to figure out how comfortable she was with him. If you look at Queen of Batons you will notice that the shield that the Empress has is gone. And more than that, the scepter the Empress held changed hands and is now leaning towards the King of Cups. You will also notice how the eyes are shut and the baton rests on her shoulder: there’s no need to remain alert anymore: things are good as they are. But she’s also facing that Hermit, so nothing’s really resolved. It’s more of a compromise than anything else: “be opened to what comes in, but don’t let go of your stuff.”

This idea is also corroborated with the Judgement card in the don’t position: “don’t blast your way in.” Again, things should be taken softly and without too many waves. Roll along quietly instead of making any sudden calls.

Why can’t she read the cards about this matter?

These are interesting cards. The three-card spread would suggest good things, but as La Force, below, indicated, it’s all about letting go. The 2 of Swords then, can be seen as this bubble she built around herself. There’s still enough room there for her to grow and develop, but what about what comes from the outside? Well, no matter how many flowers there are, it’s still not enough. Look at how the outside flowers are small when compared to what grows inside this bubble. The fear then, is that this situation might break this bubble. The central flower dulls and wanes as all those coins come into play. They might be good, but they sure feel like they’re too much to handle. And with that Judgement blasting in at full force, you can be sure that her bubble will pop!

The Hermit and Danger of Words

When she got back to me after the reading, her thoughts were on this bubble as related by the 2 of Swords. According to her, ‘I don’t really know what that “prison” is, however. I don’t consciously feel it so it’s hard to say.’

‘Well, it’s all in the cards’, I think… and I go back to that first spread and again my eyes stop at the Hermit.

Now, as tarot readers, we’re “educated” into seeing the usual concepts of loneliness and abandonment in the Hermit. “it’s the hermit, the one that leaves everything to pursue its goal of enlightenment”. All fair and good. But that really doesn’t play in here. There’s something else… Something important in the card, that only the Hermit can point to. And, as usual, something so clear and blunt it’s staring in your face, but you’re just too close to see it.

But all there is pictured there is this monk holding a lantern! There’s nothing else except that damned monk and its little light. And it hits me with the full might of a lion’s paw: ‘it’s the monk! That’s the thing about this card.’

The card is called “The Hermit”, but in the end, “Hermit” is just a word. And words have no business in cards, other than to facilitate the transmission of knowledge to the client. I should be hit 30 times for getting stuck in a word. ‘Loose the words, keep the pictures’, should be the motto of every card reader.

So, if you forget about the card’s name, everything becomes clear: like the hermit, a monk will withdraw from society to pursue its goals; but unlike hermits, monks live in monasteries. It’s normal for them to walk down shadowy corridors holding their light up to see the path ahead. And, unlike the free life of hermits, life in a monastery is all about routines: there are fixed times to pray, chores to do, etc etc.

Now routine is something that agrees with the story at hand: as we settle in our routines, we tend to see them as comfortable / safe / predictable. And when something comes to disrupt this routine, we might look at it wondering if all this commotion is actually worth the trouble of leaving the security of our little bubble for the uncertainty that waits outside. The more stable out life is, the less we’re inclined to change it to accommodate all the novelties that might come our way.

Thus, in this reading, the Hermit stands for the contentment that arises from routine. What this woman has is enough for her, or so she thinks. In this light, the QB in the “do” and the Judgement in the “don’t” make perfect sense. She should let down her shield (see how the shield in the Empress rhymes with the space delineated by the two swords in the following question) and allow him to come closer, but not change her routine over this. The fact that the new guy is represented got the KC as him is a good thing: he’s experienced (as opposed to Jack and Knight) and he knows what he wants. So you can allow yourself to relax a little and see what happens, while going about your stuff.

Her “prison” then it’s the routine she settled into: the way she’s comfortable with how things are. As the 2 of Swords indicates, this barrier she erected for herself works for her: the flower inside grows and blossoms. It defines her space and how content she is with it, as well as how ready she is to come outside.

Loose the Words, Keep the Pictures

In the end, it all really boils down to this little mantra. ‘Loose the Words, keep the pictures’. Words might feel safer, but it’s all an illusion. In reality, they have a way of sticking to you and soil things out. Pictures, on the other hand, will always point you out in the right direction. They are there for everyone to see. As tarot readers, we are asked to “see”, not “read”. Even that name, “tarot readers”, is misleading. Maybe we should be called “tarot seers” and just to keep looking at the pretty pictures wonder what might be hiding in there.

When it comes to interpret pictures, everything can be useful; even a white background. Specially a white background. By forcing you to look at what really matters and loose all that doesn’t, that empty space is your best protection against all the noise that might creep in.

Once upon a time, a great warrior went hunting with the goddess Artemis and her mother, Leto. During the hunting, he boasted that he would kill every beast on Earth. The Goddesses were not happy, and so they decided to create a Scorpio to do battle with this great hunter. It is told that it was an epic battle. So mighty it was, that it caught the eye of Zeus itself. In the end, the mighty warrior fell and the scorpion won.

After the battle was done, Zeus decided to honor the victor and place it in the skies, among the stars. When Artemis and Leto knew about this, they asked Jupiter to also raise the fallen warrior to the skies, which Zeus ended up doing, as a cautionary for humans about the dangers of excessive pride. The hunter’s name was Orion, and you can easily see both constellations in the sky. Interestingly, Orion and Scorpius appear on opposite sides of the celestial sphere and they’re best seen on different times of the year: Orion in the northern winter; Scorpio in the summer. But never both at the same time, just in case Orion gets boastful again and that nasty Scorpio is somewhere near…

The bringer of Death and the gatekeeper of Darkness

The idea that a small, crawling beast like the Scorpio can kill a hunter capable of “destroying all the creatures of earth” is an amusing one. There are echoes of that story of David and Goliath, with the small, puny scorpio being able to take down such a mighty warrior like Orion. Now all scorpions have venom and this venom is enough to paralyze or even kill its intended victims. But only a few species have a venom capable of killing a human being.

Even so, the Scorpio is equated with death. Orion’s death is not the only one credited to this tiny animal. Another example is the story of Mithras, the Persian god of light who slew a bull so that its blood could fertilize the Universe and thus create life. However, the evil Ahriman, sent a scorpion to sting the bull’s testicles and thus, destroy all life.

From Egypt, comes the story of Isis and the 7 scorpions. According to the myth, these seven scorpions have all sworn to protect both Isis and Horus, who were fleeing from the killer of Osiris (husband of Isis and father of Horus). One night, Isis and Horus, along with their seven guardians arrived at the Delta Town of the Two Sisters. They seemed shelter there for the night, at the house of a rich woman. This woman, however, was not convinced by the scorpions and refused them lodging, making them all take refuge at the home of a poor, but well-intentioned woman. The 7 scorpions, however, would have none of that and decided to take matters into their own hands.

Six of the scorpions lent their sting to the seventh, a large bold scorpion by the name of Tefen. Tefen crawled its way back to the rich woman house and stung her son. The son died and immediately the house burst into flame and water fell from the sky, even though this happened outside the rain season. The rich woman was completely distraught. She ran throughout the village, crying and asking for help, but no one would come. As she had refused help before, so help was now being refused to her. Eventually, Isis heard her cries and relenting, restored the child’s breathing by reciting the names of the 7 scorpions, sons or Serket and her guardians. The poison died; the child lived and both the fire and the water stopped. As for the mother, realizing what had happened there, donated all her wealth to the poor woman who had welcomed Isis in.

In China, the scorpio’s venom was part of a formula to create something truly potent: gu poison. Spiders, centipedes, scorpions, toads and snakes would be put in a jar and forced to fight each other in a highlander-styled competition where only one could survive. It was believed that this survivor possessed such a concentrated toxin, it could kill a men in a matter of days.

In old Babylonia, scorpio men were employed by Tiamat to guard the gates that give entrance to the Land of Darkness, to which the sun god goes each night to rest before rising the next day.

As below, so above

These stories are just a few examples of the type of narratives that were built around the Scorpion animal and that ended up being reflected on the star sign of Scorpio. Which is why when people speak about the themes of this star sign, they will usually mention death (and eros, which is never too far behind), the journey into the underground and even their sense of justice.

And Power. Power is big with Scorpios. As you saw in the first story, a scorpion was powerful enough to take on Orion and kill him. But not only that, his power caught the eye of Zeus itself who decided to celebrate the animal and its accomplishments, by getting him a place in the sky to shine upon us all. In the second story, a scorpion is responsible for a house starting to burn and for rain to fall down from the sky on the dry season. Power. Scorpios have power to correct misdoings and power to kill as they please. Now that’s something!

When Jupiter entered the sign of Scorpio last week, all I could think were the stories. Specially the one about the Death of Orion, as it involved both parties: Jupiter (as the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Zeus) and Scorpio. While most texts that I chanced upon stressed how important and revealing this transit would be or what the consequences were of the movement of the Lord of Expansion (Jupiter) into the Realm of the Underworld, I continued to think that Jupiter is entering the House of an animal he admired so much he placed it (again, as Zeus) in the sky. True, there is the revealing and the raising the whole dark / shadow / repressed part of oneself, but still…

Orion died at the hands of the Scorpion, because he was too boastful and attracted the attention of the wrong people. Orion died, because what he bragged around didn’t correspond to the truth. And Orion died because the truth that that Scorpio represented ended up being too much for him. In the end, Jupiter elevates the Scorpion, not only for its power, but also for being a reflection of a Truth so mighty most people don’t resist. Scorpios love Truth and they will wield it as a weapon against you if need be. Be aware of that, the next time you provoke a Scorpio; remember Orion and how lucky you were by not being killed by their sword play.

The entrance of Jupiter in the World of Scorpio could then be seen as a two movement dance: the first act would be the confrontation with the issues that need to be handled / killed, which will obviously lead us into Shadow work territory and all that it entails. But the second act would the the ascent of the Scorpio to the heavens itself, as a recognition of the qualities that make Scorpions such powerful animals..

Now shadow work will most probably take us to those places where we lock everything that we deem not fit for our daily life: emotions, impulses, desires, fears, and more all get buried far away from the light, in the Underworld. Confronting these issues will undoubtedly takes us through these Nether realms, something that — as stories warns us — is not an easy thing to do. The fates of Inanna and Orpheus should be enough to shine some light on how those journeys can change those who end up doing them. But these stories also shows us something else that we might already have intuited with the title: there are great riches in the Underground and now that Jupiter — Lord of Expansion, Sovereignty and Abundance — entered the House of Scorpio is the time to go after them and bring them up to the surface.

As we do this, and again taking the myth of the death of Orion as a guide, we will draw the necessary attention from the outer powers to elevate us to the stars. By killing that which needs to be killed, we are opening the door to something bigger, more powerful. But to achieve this, we need to be faithful to who we are. It is a time of sharp truths and unpleasant honesty which, like the Scorpion in the story, we will be called to face.

What do the cards have to say about Jupiter in Scorpio?

The idea is to go deep inside oneself and to emerge from this cycle in balance. There are some common elements in the cards of the World and the Hierophant, like the four elements at the corner and the two center figures. So the background remains the same. However, the woman is no longer wrestling with the snake, but has, in the Hierophant card become the sage. The serpent is also transformed into a shadow-person and now lies peaceful at the feet of that very sage. But to achieve this, we need to pass through the Hermit. To walk along the dark corridors of the mind, looking for those things we have left encased and forgotten.

Looking at both the World and the Hermit, it’s easy to see why this cycle has been seen with caution: the shift inwards implies that we have to face ourselves and whatever lies inside us. The horizon turns pitch dark and not even our weapons can shed some light here. You can see exactly that in the card of the 3 of Swords.

But while things doesn’t look good, what exactly are we being asked to deal with? Our motivations and expectations for once (as seen in the King of Cups and the King of Coins). Well… that’s to be expected. If indeed, the Lord of expansion goes Underground, then luck and abundance will get buried. Whatever you might think, this is not that bad. Riches have always been underground. Our food, water and everything else we might need also comes from the earth. So our focus has to change and turn into the earth. To get to those riches, we need to use our roots. Which takes us nicely into that third card, the 8 of Coins: we stop expanding, trying to reach higher planes. We stand our ground, and that’s it. There is a need to be cautious, for sure (5 of Wands) and centered (4 of Swords) while we deal with the naked truth that comes to meet us (Prince of Disks) and how it binds us.

All of this just to say “stop defending yourself from yourself, and open up to what’s inside of you”. As below, so above. As we turn into ourselves and deal with what’s inside of us, so too does the world turns to us and extends a hand or two to ease our way up. The first thing that comes to us is a sense of lightness, that we’re so light we can almost escape the ground and fly. And why wouldn’t we fly? We’re dealing with the excess luggage so now it’s time to rise. To move up. So off we go.

The second thing that comes to us is we are now able to operate fully. The shadow-woman who appeared in the card of the Hierophant is now glued on the Pope, meaning that for all intents and purposes, this work was successful and we’ve managed to rise from a split personality to a fully working character where even our “ex-shadow” is called upon to contribute. Which again, goes into the whole theme of Riches in the Underworld. And what could be more precious than that part of us that we decided to lock up in the basement?

In the end, the cards say that this will be a time of personal discovery. It will be a time to get re-acquainted with who we really are, ground ourselves and close every rip we can find in ourselves. The Scorpio is once again asked to kill that which boasts it’s better than the rest of the world, but can’t resist a single creature of darkness. Or a single creature of truth.

I've known Dame Darcy as a comic book writer for years. She was the creative mind behind Meatcake, a mind-blowing comic that mixed romance, mermaids, strange characters with interesting names like Wax Wolf, StregaPrez or Scampi the Selfish Shellfish, Victorian landscapes, tutorials on how to make dolls, goth chicks and whatever else caught her fancy.

She also used elements of the tarot in one of those. In a four panel page, Dame Darcy was able to synthesize the essential about the minors. You can check it out below:

For someone that grew on a steady diet of superheroes, Meatcake was a breath of fresh air and made me realize how much I was attracted to weirdness. Meatcake was dark and funny and campy and strange all at the same time, and you never knew what to expect from the next story. Only that it would be fun.

Fast forward to 2015. I was browsing some facebook postings and I saw someone talking about a Mermaid deck created by Dame Darcy. The very same Dame Darcy that created those Meatcake comics. Which, of course, meant, that I had to have them. It also meant that another of my favorite comic book creators also had a foot on the magic scene.

And just this year, the Meatcake Bible, which for the first time collected all those Meatcake stories in one single volume, got a nomination for the Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album – Reprint category. While it didn't end up winning the prize, just getting nominated for what is considered "the Oscars of comics" was already quite a feat and a recognition of the quality of her comics work. And it also gave me the perfect reason to reach out to her and bring a little of her mermaidness to you. After all, we're supposed to be a maelstrom here, and what's a maelstrom without some mermaids?

1) What brought you over to tarot and, since you've published a book about it (The Handbook for Hot Witches), magic?

I set a goal, then I trust the Goddess to guide me, every day.Working towards the goal, I watch for the signs she shows to guide me on the path of least resistance. Repetitive numbers appearing as confirmation is one kind of sign.The basic outline of my experiences here have been that, sometimes frustrating or infuriating circumstances will lead to an ultimate unexpected reward and one must remember to be patient.Making a mermaid tarot deck is one way to serve the ancient mermaid Goddess Yamaya and writing an occult book for children on a main stream publisher like Holt makes me so happy!When I lived in LA I didn't like how my Latina students were treated like second class citizens in what was originally Mexico. And I felt like the billboards with all the white girls weren't honoring diversity and celebrating different kinds of beauty.My students inspired me to write Hand Book For Hot Witches as well as my FairyGodchildren.

2) In both your Meakcake comics and the Handbook for Hot Witches you've made a point in showing how being different was actually a good thing that brought richness, creativity and diversity to the world. And yet, you've identified yourself as a mermaid, and even put out a Mermaid tarot deck. But mermaids have traditionally been associated with bad omens and dangerous events, the story of the goddess Atargatis who transforms herself into a mermaid after unintentionally murdering her human lover immediately comes to mind. How do you see the mermaid as an agent of change in this world?

Like the ocean, Mermaids can be beautiful mysterious and happy sparkiling creatures, representing the glorious days spent at sea when the weather is clear and bright. Bringing joy and abundance to all who love the sea. It is the source of all life on this planet.My parent's named me Darcy Megan which means Dark Sea Pearl. How they knew I was going to be a goth mermaid when I grew up is very intuitive of them. And I embrace the dark side of mermaids. Everyone should fear and respect the ocean because Tsunami’s and shipwrecks are not a joke.

All the sad things going on with climate change nowadays and the ocean kills me. I wish plastic had never been invented. Or the corporate jerks who don’t take responsibility for its clean up, and one day they will all be stopped. Ultimately, the ocean will win and humanity will lose if they keep it up.

3) Also in your Handbook for Hot Witches, you've mentioned in passage how witches were related with storytellers and how rhymes and songs were important in spells and chants. Being a tarot reader (and deck maker), what do you think is the song of the tarot?

I made the tarot to be lyrical and romantic like a song, and even in one review someone said they could tell I was a musician.I think the song of my Mermaid Tarot would be a sea shanty.

4) Browsing through your Mermaid deck, there's a noticeable Waite-Smith (WS) vibe there, specially in the minors. At the same time, the court cards and the majors often deviate from that WS matrix. What made you choose the WS tarot as a backbone for your own deck, and why did you choose to present different images for the Majors (for the most part) and the courts?

The first time I saw a tarot deck was my mom’s classic Ryder Waite from 1971.I’ll never forget one night Mom’s friend was visiting us in Idaho from LA, and they were in the back room sitting by the fire. My mom’s long light auburn hair hung like a curtain with the fire glowing through it as she placed the cards in front of her friend to tell her a story of her life.I thought it was very entrancing. When I was a teen witch my Mom bought me my own deck in Highschool, but I lost it sadly.Then my friend Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland bought me another Rider Waite deck about ten years ago which I still use now.I loved the atmosphere of the illustrations and have tried to emulate and recreate this kind of drawing style influenced by the Ryder Waite deck as well as illustrations from turn of the century fairytale books in my comics.

5) Comics are a form of visual narrative and the same could be said about the tarot. Both have their own distinct approach, and yet, there are several similarities between them. Having worked with both, how did your comics work and your tarot work influenced each other? And how do you think comics can help with tarot reading skills?

I was raised catholic and I always loved how the catholic church has stained glass windows that tell a visual sequencial narrative like comics.When I decided to do a tarot deck I was very inspired by the fact it is also another form of sequencial art. And I couldn’t wait to do a nautical themed one with mermaids as the key characters.The next tarot deck I want to produce will be based on the characters from my comic book Meat Cake.

You can contact Dame Darcy through her site, here. The Meatcake Bible can be bought over at amazon, at Fantagraphics or through Dame Darcy's online shop. Her tarot deck, now on its third edition, can be bought directly from her also from her shop. As for the Handbook for Hot Witches, you can get it from amazon and Dame Darcy's online shop.

Aliza Einhorn is a recent find. I was over at Patheos a few weeks ago when I saw an ad for one of her astrology posts there. At the end of the post, Aliza had a short text plugging her latest on-line tarot workshop on how to create your own tarot deck, which is being developed in collaboration with the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW). For those of you who don't know what SAW is, SAW is a school for cartooning, comic art and graphic novels that started its activity in 2012. But more that just a school devoted to teaching the art of making comics, they're invested in bringing more people to comics and guiding people on how to communicate through images. Which is, basically, what we all do with tarot cards. Watching comic book people discovering the tarot is always a joy. Tom Hart, both a comic book professional and the director of SAW and has just posted his reaction over at the SAW's newsletter and it's great.

This is why, when I learned of Aliza's course, I was all over the place and immediately contacted her for a short interview. After all, comics and tarot are two of my major passions. Capital M, capital A, capital J, capital O, capital R. And I will take every chance I have to bring them on. This time, I have invited a tarot reader / astrologer / poet. Which, as you probably know, is a great combination to have together. She will talk through images and words and will spin those into a charm just for you. With her new course, she proposes to bring some of that magic forth and show you how magic is just another word for art.

So, without any further delay, here's Aliza Einhorn, about tarot and comics.

1) How did your collaboration with Tom Hart and SAW, the Sequential Artists Workshop, come about?

Synchronicity! I was messaging with my friend, illustrator and cartoonist Leela Corman (who is married to Hart) and was saying how I'd like to do another local Tarot workshop for SAW students. I had already done one, a few months before. Literally a second later, Tom asked her if she thought I might be interested in teaching in the on-line SAW school. It felt like it was meant to be.

I've been teaching Tarot and Astrology classes on line for years, on my own. This was the first time I’d ever done anything local and also my first collaboration. Astrology lovers reading this know that Jupiter is in Libra and I have had all kinds of new partnerships spring up during this transit.

2) What is the class about? Who is it for?

I like to say that the class is for everyone! Artists, writers, those who want to create their own decks, Tarot lovers, Tarot curious.It’s also for folks who simply want to get more in touch with their creativity, or feel blocked, using the Tarot as our template. It’s different than anything I’ve done before, more structured with weekly videos and writing and drawing assignments, and a private forum to talk about it all.

3) How can comics benefit Tarot readers?

Exposure to any art form will benefit Tarot readers because art, good art, moves us on a deep level, just as the Tarot does. This makes us more sensitive humans and thus better able to read the cards with compassion and truth and help people.For me, comics are like holding a movie in my hands. It’s an immediate, raw experience. Happens so fast and so deeply. The best comics, for me, are like arrows to the heart and I can’t put the book or the comic down. It’s the feeling of not wanting to take the arrows out.

4) You said that reading comics is a raw immediate experience. How would you define a tarot reading?

I really love this question! Although Tarot reading, for me, is art and magic, ultimately I want clear answers, whether I'm drawing for clients or for myself. I want clarity. I want the road ahead. And I want to know what is most likely to happen. I'm in pursuit of truth, more than mystery. And if mystery comes, then I wait, and seek the truth again. So to answer the question of "how would I define a Tarot reading?" a Tarot reading is daily life. Just like I brush my teeth, drink coffee, eat food, work, etc., I draw the cards. For me, the spiritual is practical. And yet I often say to people: I don't know why it works, just that it does. I know a lot of Tarot readers who shy away from prediction. I run towards it!

5) What do you think is the most important aspect when creating a deck?

Courage. To be yourself and to tell your story. Your own imagination is key. This is a theme that runs through the class, but also it’s important to have some knowledge of Tarot history and tradition. You don’t need to be a Tarot scholar, but I think one should know some of the history they’re stepping into.Still, the most important aspect is YOU and to discover your personal vision, what you want to say, show, within the Tarot context. Every new deck is a conversation with the decks that came before.There may be folks in the class who decide to NOT make a Tarot deck at all and instead create some other Oracle or head off in a different direction. Folks who do want to create their Tarot deck though will have ample opportunity to explore and experiment and sketch out their ideas with plenty of support. I’ve just started creating mine and class hasn’t even started yet! I got inspired just from the process of putting together the class.But in order to be yourself and to tell your story and to go deep in that, it helps to be fearless, vulnerable, and allow yourself to feel. Allow yourself to draw (or write) how you feel. That’s the hard part, that letting go, but that’s what will cause you to create something unique and authentic and beautiful.

Every Picture Tells a Story, Aliza Einhorn's Tarot Deck Creation Class starts September the 5th. For more information on how to sign on and a freebie, do please go the SAW website, here. For more Aliza goodness, you can check her personal website MoonPlutoAstrology and her Patheos column.

According to the Mayan Calendar, yesterday, the 31st of July, 2017 was the Day of 10 Owls, also known as 10 Ak’Bal. Since this might not say much to most of you, here’s a little explanation: for the Mayans, the Divine Calendar — also known as the Tzolk'in— was composed of 13 rounds of 20 days each, for a total of 260 days; each day was determined by the particular combination of two inter-locking cycles, one consisting of numbers which runs 13 days, the other cycle consisted of images and lasted 20 days. Now, much like our tarot cards, each number and image was assigned a particular set of meanings. By decoding both, the Mayans would get the information necessary to make the best out of the day.

As yesterday was 10 Ak’bal, that particular day was about Personifying A Private World. Meaning it was about embodying our private world. Now, I’ve been doing some daily readings with the Thoth deck while taking the Tzolk'in into consideration (which you can follow here or here. The cards that came out yesterday were the Princess of Disks and the 7 of Cups and what they had to say was,

'Today's about personifying a private world. Look after yourself; it's about time you cleaned everything that's messing with you.'

Of course there’s a lot more that could be said about these two cards. In the 7 of Cups we can see all the slime that is dripping from the walls and the cups filling and infecting everything. In a way, it almost looks like things have gone stale and can’t be endured anymore. Which make the need to act all the more pressing.

But the interesting part is what came next. About 30 minutes later, I got a call from my landlord urging me to go quickly to the check my room where I perform my readings as there was some kind of fire in the bar located on the ground floor of my building. Apparently, black smoke had been coming out of the bar for hours and it was be necessary to open doors for the firemen and to check if everything was in order. Nothing came out of it, but that didn’t stop the local news media to hover around trying to get every little dirty detail out of it.

Truth and dare

Still, it forced me to look once again at the place that I rented more than three years ago with the purpose of establishing a practice in my home city. While this never really took off — specially with me being away for all of the last year in East Timor — I’ve always resisted the urge to pass it, since I felt such a positive vibe in the place and it was so superbly located I grew attached to it. So it remained… not really abandoned and not really being used.

This also came to mind as I’ve been following Camelia Elias's latest series of tarot prompts, this one about the house. [You might notice how Camelia is a favorite here at Maelstromtarot. She is. In a way, she’s also the precursor of this whole journey as we all met at a Camelia Elias event]. As I was waiting for all the commotion to end and finally re-enter my room, I sat at the coffee reading her prompts and thinking about what to do with the space.

Guided by her first prompt, my first action was to determine where did the local spirit of my room resided in order to thank him for calling me into action. To this I decided to engage one of my all-time favorite decks and also one I haven’t used in years, the Tarot of the Siddhe by the talented Emily Carding.

The answer was simple: ‘I stand in a place of gatherings. I am by the door, hovering. Protecting it and kindling the fire.’

The implications were clear: the spirit of the place could be found at that bar that caught fire. It did make some sense, as both the bar and my reading room are in the same building. Also according to the cards, the fire was his own doing, marking all of this as a definite call for action.

Should I stay or should I go?

Sometimes, the best questions come from popular culture. The Clash’s song perfectly echoed what I was thinking about: was it worth it to cling to a good vibe and a promise of what was to be? or was it better to just cut my losses and all attachments to the place and be on my way?

Truth be told, I was leaning more to the second answer. After all, the place was in limbo for about 18 months now, and with a new relocation just looming over the horizon, it would most probably remain there for at least another year. Letting it go seemed like the logical thing to do. The spirits, however, had other ideas:

Things were bleak right now and reaching for that sunny spot there seemed almost like a mirage. Such was the situation, which was accurately portrayed in the Dancer Eight. I also couldn't help noticing the parallel with the 7 of Cups card I drew earlier for the daily remind. Talk about stagnation. And yet… even so I was invited to go beyond all of this and remain at that spot. 'This is a power spot', the cards say. 'Here you will end up channeling the power to move you straight to the sky. Besides, what's the alternative? Trying to figure out how to wrestle with dragons? Well, good luck with that! You will end up bargaining for what is here freely given.'

'Fair enough', I said. When magic calls, one should answer. No ifs. No buts. Just saying yes will suffice.

I do!

Only one thing to do then: clean the whole place clean and put the show on the road. Offerings of thanks were made to both the local spirits and the ones that were guarding the place. Incenses were lighten and prayers were done. And in the end, a final question, 'How can I honor this place and the ones that inhabit it?'

'Reside in harmony with this place; do not let go of this connection.'

Good, powerful magic is always simple. Even when it looks complex. If I want something out of it, I must give something of myself. The more present I am here, the more I use it for the gift of sight, the better it will be for the both of us. Talk about stating the obvious! Didn't it called me into coming back? What else should I be expecting?

As I lit the final candle and turned off the lights, a final message appeared. What was also a candle became something more; something greater. And the most appropriate seal imaginable.

The Following Day, 11 K'an

For the Mayans, the day would always start at sunrise and would go on until the following sunrise. So even though I'm finishing this post at about 3:30 am of the 2nd of August, the corresponding Mayan day is still 11 K'an, which is about Owning a Public World. The cards that came out for this day were The Fool and the Ace of Swords and they spoke about going that extra mile to break through all those boundaries that wouldn't let us move forward. In a way, it does seem about right that tonight's the night when I post this.